Daniel J SaitAt the heart of The Reference is a new version of KEF’s Uni-Q ‘point source’ driver array. A 25mm vented aluminium dome tweeter is placed at the exact acoustic centre of a sophisticated 125mm midrange driver.
KEF says the combination acts as a single source that floods the listening space evenly with a flawless, natural soundfield, no matter where the listener sits.
KEF explains the vented tweeter combines a motor system with a computer- optimised two-part aluminium dome so rigid that it operates ‘pistonically’ over its entire range. KEF says its response has no trace of resonance or interference and the sensitivity is much higher in the critical 2 kHz region than a conventional tweeter.
KEF’s visually striking ‘tangerine’ waveguide propagates the upper registers evenly across the midrange cone, whilst its Z-flex surround and the baffle all act as a single continuous surface with no discontinuity or distortion.
The new 165mm (6.5in) bass driver has a massive vented magnet assembly and a large aluminum-wire voice coil driving a light, stiff and strong aluminum cone.
KEF says the drivers are set in a smooth, strikingly distinctive front baffle engineered to eliminate response anomalies caused by diffraction.
There are five Reference designs: a three-way bookshelf speaker, two three-way floorstanders, a three-way timbre-matched centre channel and a 1000W twin-driver subwoofer. The series comes in a choice of Deep Piano Black, Luxury Gloss Rosewood and Satin American Walnut wood veneers.